


Never Let Me Go

by DesireeArmfeldt



Category: Big Eden (2000)
Genre: Forgiveness, Friendship, M/M, Missing Scene, My First Work in This Fandom, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesireeArmfeldt/pseuds/DesireeArmfeldt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean gives Henry a ride to the airport.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Let Me Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Seascribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seascribe/gifts).



They’re halfway to the airport before Dean breaks the silence.

“So this is it? You’re not even going to say goodbye to me?”

Henry sighs, looking out the window.

“Of course I’m going to say goodbye.”

“Well, that’s something, I guess. Bye, Dean, see you next summer? Going to lie to me, like you lied to my kids?”

Henry doesn’t answer.

“You at least planning to come back for the next funeral?”

“That’s enough!” Henry snaps, his voice raw, on the edge of tears.

Another mile rolls by at highway-speed, then Dean says, quietly, “Sorry. That wasn’t—”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not fine. And you know what? You’re not fine.”

Henry snorts. “Well, gee, Dean, my grandfather just died, I’m having kind of a bad week.”

“I know,” says Dean gently. “I know, and I. . .look, Henry, I just. . .You’re hurting, and I want to help. And I wish you’d let me. Or, if not me, then somebody. Don’t just. . .”

“I’ll be fine. I will. I do have friends in New York, you know.”

“Yeah. I know.”

A shorter silence, this time, and then Dean says, “Okay, listen. You already don’t want anything to do with me—”

Henry opens his mouth to protest, gesturing at himself, sitting in Dean’s pickup, but Dean doesn’t give him a chance to speak.

“—So it won’t make a difference if I piss you off. Anyway, it’s my job to tell you when you’re being an asshole. So: Henry, you’re being an asshole.”

Henry turns to look at him for the first time since getting into the truck, outraged.

“You know, not everything is all about you—”

“Yeah, thanks, I got that. But I wasn’t talking about me. I mean you running out on Pike.”

“Running—I don’t—that’s not—”

“Did you even say goodbye to the man?” Dean presses.

“No,” Henry admits. He sinks back in his seat with a sigh. “I tried. Twice. But he wouldn’t let me, and then Sam-pa. . .and he didn’t even come to the funeral.”

“So that’s it, you’re not going to talk to him for ten years?”

Henry closes his eyes.

“It’s not the same thing at all. You and me. . .we were friends our whole lives. I barely know Pike.”

“Yeah, but you want to,” says Dean. Henry shoots him a surprised look, but Dean’s eyes are fixed on the road. “It’s—” He cuts himself off, shakes his head sharply, and starts over. “You like him, he likes you. . .he more than likes you.”

Henry shakes his head.

“I saw you two talking, the other day,” Dean insists. “He looked at you like. . .well, it seemed pretty obvious to me.”

“You really think. . .?”

“Yeah, I do. Come on, don’t you?”

“I. . .yeah.” Henry gives another defeated-sounding sigh. “I know he does. I guess maybe I’ve known that for a while, I just wasn’t ready to. . .”

“Yeah. But now. . .”

“I can’t. I just can’t, Dean. Okay?” Henry pleads.

“No. It’s not fucking okay. It’s bullshit, is what it—”

“Oh, so when you say you can’t, I’m supposed to take you at your word, but when I say it—”

“Yes, because you can, Henry. There is nothing stopping you except you’re scared.”

“I’m scared? Of what? Getting my heart broken? Because that’s a ridiculous thing to be scared of, right?”

“No. It’s not,” Dean says. “But look, right now, you’re making yourself miserable and you’re making him miserable, not to mention my boys and—and a bunch of other people around here. How do you think you could possibly do worse by giving it a chance with Pike?”’

Henry chokes on a burst of incredulous laughter. “Jesus, Dean, you should go into sales.”

For a second, they smile at each other, before Henry drops his eyes and Dean turns his own back to the road.

“The thing is, Henry,” he says quietly. “When you love somebody, you don’t hold anything back. That’s who you are. And let me tell you, to be loved like that. . .it’s just about the best thing there is. And you deserve to have that, to be with someone who loves you that way. The way you love them. And I—I’d be a pretty shitty best friend if I let you throw that away just because it’s not me.”

He bites his lips and drives in silence, not looking at Henry, who slowly turns his head to give him a long, considering look.

Finally, Henry says in a smothered voice, “Could you pull over?”

Dean guides the pickup onto the shoulder and cuts the ignition. He looks over at Henry, who pops his seatbelt and leans across the seat to pull Dean into a hug. Startled, Dean gets his arms around Henry as best he can in the cramped space, what with the steering wheel and his own seatbelt.

“I’m sorry,” Henry’s words are muffled in Dean’s shoulder. “It’s enough. You—I should have—you are my family, it’s more than enough. I’m sorry.”

Blinking, smiling, Dean rubs Henry’s back as they hang onto each other.

“Okay,” he whispers. “It’s okay.”

After a while, Henry asks, “You remember that time we rode our bikes down the quarry? And I broke my arm and sliced up my face, and Grandma was so pissed, and she asked me did I always do everything you told me to?”

He pulls back to look Dean in the face, wet-eyed but with a shaky smile.

“Of course I do,” Dean answers.

“Turn the truck around,” says Henry.

**Author's Note:**

> It looked to me like Dean was probably giving both Henry and Mary Margaret a lift to the airport in the movie, but for the purposes of this fic, I'm assuming Mary Margaret has her own rental car. With a car seat for the baby. :)


End file.
